I can honestly say I’ve never eaten mung beans before except for mung bean noodles and I don’t think that technically counts because mung bean noodles are made with mung bean starch.
When my sister suggested making mung bean hummus with some mung beans she had in her cupboard, I can’t say I was thrilled at the idea. If you’ve never cooked with mung beans they are a not-so-pretty shade of green and brown. I couldn’t imagine the hummus would look appealing and I wasn’t sure how it would taste. I was even more skeptical when a quick internet search yielded very few mung bean hummus posts.
But whatever. I’ve become infinitely more adventurous with food in my older age so I decided we should give it a go. Besides; I love hummus. Worst case scenario we have wasted some dried beans and tahini and a few other inexpensive food staples.
Speaking of tahini, I find researching hummus recipes fascinating. The amount of tahini versus olive oil in the ingredient often varies greatly from recipe to recipe from all tahini to all olive oil to equal tahini to olive oil ratios to a bit of tahini and more olive oil to a bit of olive oil and more tahini. So here’s what I want to say about my recipe below. Let this be your base recipe and customize as you see fit. Most the recipes I was finding called for a 1:1 ratio dried beans to tahini. This seemed insane to me. I cut my tahini down to ¼ and I thought it was plenty sesame tasting. If you really like tahini, bump it all the way up to ½ cup. You’re the boss in your kitchen. Same thing when it comes to olive oil, lemon, garlic and salt. You get the picture.
In the past month or so I have tried making several types of hummus recipes and this one ranks right up at the top. Especially if you like garlic!
ingredients.
- ½ c. dry mung beans
- 2 c. water
- 2 T. lemon juice
- ¼ c. tahini paste
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled & smashed (use 1 or 2 if you’re not a fan of garlic)
- ½ tsp. fine grain sea salt
- 8 or more ice cubes (this will depend on size)
directions.
- Rinse and sort mung beans; discard any rotten or beans. Place in a bowl and cover with plenty of fresh water for 8 to 12 hours. Mine were in about 24 hours or more and maybe started to sprout a little.
- When ready to cook the beans, rinse thoroughly and then place in a medium size pot and add 2 cups of fresh water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until tender, about 15 to 30 minutes.
- To make the hummus, add the mung beans to a food processor and pulse until a fine, fluffy crumb develops. Scrape the bean paste from the corners once or twice during the processing. Add lemon juice, tahini, garlic, and sea salt. Blend again for another minute or two and stop when the beans begin to form a ball inside the container.
- Start adding the ice cubes a few at a time. Blend until the hummus is smooth and light and creamy – this could take 5 or more minutes – continuing to add ice cubes as needed. Try the hummus and adjust the taste by adding more lemon juice, tahini, olive oil or salt, if needed. Top with olive oil and fresh chives or smoked paprika or all three. My favorite thing to eat with hummus is Middle-eastern flat bread. But you can eat it with warm pita or naan, lavash bread, or your favorite veggie.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 